Less than two months after the Indian Air Force (IAF) chose the French Rafale fighter jet for its medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA)â€ˆproject, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has raised objections over its lifecycle cost, thereby pushing back the date by which the contract could be signed with the manufacturers, Dassault Aviation.

Top IAF sources said the two MoDâ€ˆmembers on the Contract Negotiations Committee (CNC) have questioned the low lifecycle cost that was earlier worked out in respect of the Rafale which was chosen over the Eurofighter Typhoon for the Air Forceâ€™s MMRCA programme that envisages supply from Dassault 126 aircraft for a massive $20 billion, the largest open tender military aviation deal in the world.

The sources said that the â€œdifferencesâ€ that have cropped up among the CNC members are centred around the Rafaleâ€™s lifecycle cost which the MoD representatives have declared to be far less than what it should be.

â€œThere is no unanimity among the CNCâ€ˆmembers... and failing a unanimous decision, the Rafale acquisition could well get pushed back,â€ sources said. While the maintenance cost of a Saab-Gripen single engine aircraft is over $3,000 per hour, that of the far superior Rafale could be estimated to be much higher.

The MoD representativesâ€™ assessment that a Rafaleâ€™s lifecycle cost should be higher appears to have stemmed from the defence establishmentâ€™s historical reliance on Russian aircraft. According to sources, the MoD officials on the CNCâ€ˆare â€œnot satisfiedâ€ with the lower assessment of the lifecycle cost.

The MoDâ€™s disagreement with other CNCâ€ˆmembers comes at a time when the committee will also have to review other â€œitemsâ€ involving the Rafale, including the cost of air frame, engine, avionics, weapons system and spare parts support among others. It is learnt that the MoD representatives raised their objections some time after the commercial bids were opened and continued to object to the low computation of a Rafale aircraftâ€™s lifecycle cost in some recent meetings of the CNC.

The MoDâ€™s maximalist stand is baffling especially after the government recently advised the armed forces to prioritise their capital acquisitions because 70 per cent of funds remain committed to approved purchases. In a situation where only 30 per cent of the available funds are left for purchases, the armed forces have been told â€œnot to push for every deal.â€

In this context, IAFâ€ˆsources said that with the Air Forceâ€™s immediate requirements for jet trainers, new engines for its fleet of Jaguar fighters and heavy and light helicopters as support for ground troops, to pay for the Rafale deal, if the contract has to be signed four to five months from now, â€œwould be a tall order.â€

Dassault is in the process starting discussions with the vendors to get more clarity on the various offset possibilities and a final proposal on the same is expected to be completed by April-May. The company expects the finalisation of the award by the end of this year.

But a less optimistic senior defence ministry source said that â€œthe 30 per cent funds corpus will not allow accommodating the MMRCA and the funds constraint will leave a big question mark over the fate of the deal,â€ adding that the contract signing stage with Dassault Aviation is â€œfar awayâ€.

When contacted over phone, MoD official spoke-sman Sitangshu Kar said,â€ˆâ€œEverything is progressing smoothly. However, I do not have an update over the developments related to the MMRCAâ€ˆover the last fortnight or so.â€

A defence ministry official also dismissed as false a report in an Indian publication that quoted unnamed sources as saying it had raised concerns about calculations pertaining to the Rafale's life-cycle costs.